George Cox Elementary Named State’s Only Tier 1 WellSpot School

May 19, 2015

George Cox Elementary teacher and wellness committee leader Kristin Mann engages students about healthy choices during the school’s presentation event for being named a WellSpot.

It was a healthy celebration in more ways than one recently at George Cox Elementary. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals’ Well-Ahead Louisiana program named the Jefferson Parish Public School (JPPSS) the state’s only Tier 1 WellSpot school. The designation means George Cox meets the program’s highest level of achievement in an effort to help Louisiana citizens make healthy choices and live well.

“This is an honor for the school, which highly values healthy living habits of both its students and its employees,” said George Cox Elementary Principal Scott Steckler. ‘And an honor for Jefferson Parish schools, which provides the leadership for the school in promoting and supporting healthy living habits.”

Well-Ahead Louisiana representative Renee Underwood joined students and staff on May 14 to present the school with its certificate of designation. George Cox is one of two schools in the state named a WellSpot and the only Tier 1 school in the three tier system.

Some of the benchmarks the school met included forming a wellness committee to create and implement campus health plans, adding fitness assessments, allowing students to participate in 30 minutes of daily physical activity, and offering healthy food options during events like class parties, fundraisers, and sporting events.

“One of the fundamental things that we do is to teach students the 5-2-1-0 +10 program,” said Steckler. “This stands for 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 2 hours maximum of screen time, 1 hour of physical activity every day, 0 sugar drinks every day, and ten hours of sleep. These are basic tenants of a healthy lifestyle for our students.”

Event the presentation of the certificate was a learning opportunity for the students. George Cox teacher Kristin Mann, who led the school’s wellness committee, used the opportunity to review some of the health facts students learned during the school year.

“The choices you make today are going to affect you in the future,” Mann told the students. “If you make good choices today, you’ll make good choices in the future.”